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right of collective bargaining. The public
employees have not been denied this right
on the basis of the tort law theory of
'The king can do no wrong, but instead
have been denied the right on the basis
of, one, the Constitutional principle that
legislative authority cannot be delegated,
and, two, sound public policy, as stated
in the above judicial decisions.
"Therefore, the honorable delegates of
this Convention are respectfully re-
quested to omit any provision for collec-
tive bargaining, because, one, private
employees have this right as a matter of
law without the need for a state Con-
stitutional provision; two, sound public
policy dictates that the right should not
be afforded to public employees; three,
public employees under existing statutory
law already have the right to belong to
an association or union which can equit-
ably represent them before the State, its
agencies and its political subdivisions."
It is apparent to me that the demand
for this amendment comes not from the
employees of the industry and the govern-
ment of the State but from other sources.
I urge the defeat of this amendment.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Kiefer, the
Chair's ruling went to the distribution of
the letters to which you refer.
I did not of course intend to indicate, as
indeed, I could not, that they could not be
referred to by you or any other person in
the course of your debate.
Delegate Bothe.
DELEGATE BOTHE: Mr. Chairman,
I yield two minutes to Delegate Storm.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Storm.
DELEGATE STORM: Mr. Chairman, I
became sold on this idea back when I was
in the Navy. Up until that time, I came
from a very conservative county where
labor is not understood. I was very much
opposed to the idea, but seeing it work at
sea in the merchant ships, I became con-
vinced that this right is a precious one
and is good for America.
I submit that the labor movement has
made tremendous strides for the good of
America. I think they are now responsible
people. I think they are cleaning up their
own houses. We can respect them, and I
think that this is a good amendment.
THE CHAIRMAN: Delegate Kiefer.
DELEGATE KIEFER: Mr. Chairman,
how much time do I have left?
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THE CHAIRMAN: Approximately nine
minutes.
DELEGATE KIEFER: Mr. Chairman,
ladies and gentlemen of this Committee:
this is another time when I find myself
rising seemingly to vote against mother-
hood and in favor of sin. Please believe me,
I am not.
I urge you to reject this amendment
resoundingly. Now, I am not opposed to
labor. I have probably been engaged in
hard labor as much as anybody here, and
maybe more so. I partly worked my way
through college in the summertime work-
ing as a laborer, a carpenter's helper. I
can remember climbing over scaffolding, a
hundred feet over the ground carrying
loads of lumber. And when we worked
away from home, I can remember boarding
and living with these same working men.
I still represent people and have as friends,
laboring men.
I am not opposed to labor. I hope Dele-
gate Storm and you people who will feel
you have to vote for this, realize that this
is not an anti-labor position. However, I
must call your attention again to the fact
that we are here writing a personal right,
a Declaration of Rights section, which
applies to all of the people, not just to a
segment of people or to a group, a pressure
group.
Now, in our files we have letters and
letters from people who are little people,
who say, give us the right to work. Nobody
is opposed to negotiations. Nobody is op-
posed to unions.
This can all be regulated by statute. We
had Labor Day here on October 19, and
the people we had were the same old tired
people who come down here every year to
the legislature. There were management
and labor. They were very fine, sophisti-
cated people. They got into an argument
among themselves. Labor wanted the right
to organize and bargain, and management
said, "yes, you can have it, but we want
the right to work."
Now, not only are there some of you
who are not completely a hundred percent
in favor of one position or the other, but
even labor itself and even the employees
themselves are not completely in favor of
this.
There are 17,000 members of the Mary-
land Classified Employees Association,
7,000 members of the Municipal Employees
Association of Baltimore City, some 1700
of the Baltimore County Association.
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